Bardhan demands shifting POSCO steel plant site

South Asia Mail today reported as under :

Bhubaneswar, May 21 (IANS) The agitation over the $12 billion steel project by South Korean steel major POSCO in Orissa seemed nowhere near its end Friday with the Communist Party of India demanding a change in the location of the greenfield plant. "We want the whole project to be shifted from the area identified near Paradip," said CPI general secretary A।B. Bardhan, a day after the state government decided to ask Posco to exclude around 300 acres of private land from the site earmarked for the plant in Jagatsinghpur district. “Giving up only 300 acres of private land cannot be a solution, Bardhan told reporters here, demanding a white paper from the government on the project. "The government should come out with a white paper on the cost of the project in terms of land... cost of the water people will be deprived of, what is the status of the forest land," he said। Bardhan also criticized the government for not settling the forest land in favour of the local villagers who have been living their since generations. “It is a matter of surprise that the government is claiming those lands as government land," he said.